Wednesday, July , 2010

Subject: Hello Everyone!

Another week in the paradise known as Kazakhstan! It is so beautiful here and we are even going up into the mountains again with President Wooley because he is in town for Zone Conference! This week a lot of things happened!

This past Sunday I did not go to church :) Elder Brown was sick and because we wanted every companionship to be represented at church in case an investigator came we went on splits. And, to make it even better it was fast sunday! haha so I just sat at home and studied the scriptures all day, it was great! One of the best study sessions so far on my mission! But, after that Elder Malanin and I went to a different church that is called Grace, I think that is how it translates. Wow! It was crazy! I thought I was at a rock concert! There was a huge band playing and people screaming and the preacher was yelling and talking as fast as he could so that we could barely understand him, even my native Russian companion could barely understand him! I don't know how anyone felt the spirit there... all I felt was exhaustion! It was a really interesting experience.. so basically I skipped our church this week and went to a different one. :)

Nona came to sports day this past week. Haha I think I told you last week that we were trying to said up a grandma get together sports activity and actually it worked out this past Saturday! all of our grandma investigators came and they played table tennis and cards! Haha it was great! I have finally come to the fact that if we can just get one of them baptized then they are all going to get baptized! But, Nona is doing good and is finally searching for the things that she likes about the Book of Mormon. She even accepted the plan of salvation this past week! Big step!

This past week we also went to eat at Ismail's, our investigator from Palestine. He is the coolest guy on earth! The nicest guy in the world! We made some real Palastinian Plov together! It was awesome! We made some good food, ate, and then just sat there and talked about God and what he believes for awhile. It was such a peaceful experience. He is just such a calm guy. Probably one of my favorites that we are teaching right now. (PS Plov is basically just a special mixture of rice, meat, and vegetables)

My Russian is coming along really good this week. I actually realized yesterday how much I have grown in that area yesterday. Elder Nutt is in town with President Wooley so I had the chance to be able to teach with him for the first time since we split up and I realized how much better I speak and how much more I understand. It was a really good experience! I almost need to start working a little bit more on my English!

Well it is transfer time again, we are having transfers early this time. I know that at least someone from Kazakhstan is leaving, so we will find out soon if that is me or not! I don't know at all what is going to happen, I don't want to say whether I want to leave or not because I am afraid that will jinx me!

Well here is my story for the week... this story actually goes back to a long time ago when Elder Nutt and I were companions. This is when I was still pretty new to life out in the field. When I first got to the field I basically just followed everything Elder Nutt did and was too scared to do anything else... for example if we were on a bus and I saw him talking to someone then I would talk to someone but if he wasn't then I wouldn't. Haha things have changed a lot since then thank goodness. But, I remember one specific time when we were sitting on a bus with our district and everyone was together talking but I saw this kid sitting alone so I went and started talking to him (which was unusual being new a scared). I ended up getting his contact info and in fact we still meet with him to this day. He is a good kid. But, talking with him also brought his sister to our church. She started meeting with us and then because she was to young for us to teach her we gave her to the sisters. Haha well I found out this week that she is getting baptized! Wow, That was definitely not expected especially after our first lesson with her! Haha but Yesterday her dad came to look at our church and we took him on a tour and explained everything about things and now I think we are also going to start meeting with him! Haha it is just amazing to me how just little decisions we make as observers can really change a persons life! Now I understand what they meant in the MTC when they told us that we have more of an affect on whether an investigator gets baptized even more than the investigator does! The decisions we make to talk to be about the church and sincerely and spiritually prepare to teach them really make more of an effect on what happens with them, especially during the hardest times when we just don't want to do anything at all. I am more grateful than I can even express for this opportunity to share the message of the restored gospel with everyone!

Well that was my story for the week :) I hope you all have a great one! I love you all! Remember who you are! :)

Elder Weihing